Wednesday, September 24, 2014

This leads us to a paradox: On one hand mankind is
supposed to develop on their own, without outside interference, on the other
hand glaring examples of divine intervention. No doubt is left in the mind of
the participants (like prophet
Muhammadpbuh, Giri Bala, and Therese Neumann) and the people around
them, that this is the finger of God doing it, because the two women lived on
air for years, for everybody to see. God is supposed to be hidden. Why manifest
Himself by miracles?

I do not know the
answer, but I can try.

God intervenes in a
major and a minor way due to His three eminent qualities. I have picked these
three, in a litany of others, with some consideration. These are Goodness,
Mercy, and His desire that people should appreciate Him, and if possible love
Him.

Goodness.
The proof of His goodness is that when He intervenes in a major way through
prophets like Moses, Jesus, Muhammadpbuh, Buddha, Krishna, the
ensuing teaching is to love the fellow man. To create a good society. All the
preaching of prophets and mystics, inspired by God, is to do good and make the
society better.

Mercy. Although He
appears indifferent, but He is merciful. If a society becomes selfish, a major
reformer, like Jesus, is sent. Here is a thoughtful verse in Gita, the Hindu scripture: Lord Krishna
(human incarnation of God, according to Hindu religion) said;

“Whenever dharma (Divine way) declines and the
purpose of life is forgotten, I manifest myself on earth. I am born in every
age to protect the good, to destroy evil, and to re-establish dharma.”The Bhagvad Gita. 4:7-8

Why would God take
the trouble of helping if not from mercy?

Consider the two
prayers of Mufti Sahib (blog 112). He begged God to help him in feeding his
guests. Prayer was immediately answered. Money was provided. His other request
was for helping him to spend Eid with his family. Again his request was
granted, and money came through the hands of a stranger. The person who wept so
much that skin under his eyes broke down.He importuned God for a huge debt relief (blog 112). His request was granted.
All these three episodes denote mercy. Out of all the qualities of God, this
mote, appreciates His mercy the most.

To be appreciated if
not loved: When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was, he
replied; to love God.

There is something
in God which is attracted towards the people who love Him. The person, who
loves Him without any reward, and without any answer (from Him), is indeed
rare. Because it is very difficult to love somebody which is just an idea in
the mind in the form of infinite expanse of empty space; Dionysius the
Areopagite gave it the name of Divine Darkness. It is difficult to love a
concept. To love Goodness, Justice and Beauty. It is much easier if there was a
human form to love, such as Jesus, Muhammadpbuh, Buddha, Krishna,
and Ram, or an object such as Kaaba (
the holiest site of Islam ).

2. What is the
purpose of life? I don’t know.

3. Is God personal
or impersonal? By personal God is meant that He is approachable. He has human
qualities such as joy, sadness, love, and justice. Requests can be sent to Him
as supplications. He takes interests in the affairs of the world. And finally,
he interferes in the world.

By impersonal God it
is meant that He is somewhere, far, alone, absorbed in Himself. Nobody can
reach Him. He is not aware of the affairs of this world.

He is neither happy
nor unhappy

He is neither angry
nor jealous

He is neither just
nor unjust

He is neither
merciful nor cruel

He does not love or
hate

He is neither good
nor bad

From my own personal
experience and from centuries of mystical thought, I am certain, as certain can
be, that God is personal. To experience Him, one has to invite Him in one’s life. As I have said earlier, this
is a cardinal principal. I have narrated so many incidents of His (or His
deputies) interventions in blogs 102-112, that there is no doubt left of a
personal God.

But part of God is
impersonal. Unapproachable.

The only fact which
is still unclear is that what if all these instances of miracles, answering of
prayers, prophecies, spirits of dead connoting life after death, are perpetrated
by His deputies and not by Him? He may be remote and unattached to this world.
It is an unanswerable question, but it does not bother me at all, because the
system under which these deputies operate has been created by God, and all the
prophets and thousands of mystics have said the same thing ( except Buddha ),
on rooftops, at peril of life. These systems, such as spirits of bygone human
beings, (trillions of them, over millions of years) and life after death, are
huge systems. They cannot be created by humans, since they predate them. The spirits
could not have developed spontaneously, because brain, like the rest of body,
disintegrates.

Therefore, God is
both personal and impersonal. The great saint Sri Ramakrishna said that
impersonal and personal God cannot be separated; they are the same, like milk
and its whiteness.

This mote thinks that
the Holy Spirit in Christianity is based on the same principle; it is the kinetic
energy of God.­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­_____________________________________________________________________________________

(1) Dionysius the
Areopagite, ‘De Mystica Theologia’. Taken from the book, ‘Mysticism’ by Evelyn
Underhill

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

b) Major way. When He
interferes with human development and history. Take the example of prophet
Muhammadpbuh. I have chosen prophet Muhammadpbuh because
his first encounter with a disembodied entity was very dramatic, and he told it
to so many people and it is mentioned in Koran also. And the event did not take
place in remote past but in 7th century, in a cave in Saudi Arabia.
The historical evidence is fairly authentic. But, I could have chosen Jesus or
Moses, except that there is no account of Jesus accosted by God or His
deputies, and encounter of Moses with, allegedly God, was close to 3500 to 4000
years ago­­­____ a long time ago, we may have received a distorted
account.

“One day suddenly
the Truth descended upon him while he was in the cave of Hira. The angel came
to him and asked him to read. The Prophet (pbuh) replied, “I do not know how to read.” The Prophet (pbuh) added, “The angel caught me
(forcefully) and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it any more. He then
released me and again asked me to read and I replied, “I do not know how to
read.” Thereupon he caught me again and pressed me a second time until I could
not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read but again
I replied, “I do not know how to read (or what shall I read)?” Thereupon he
caught me for the third time and pressed me, and then released me
and said, “Read in the name of your Lord, who has created (all that exists),
has created man from a clot. Read! And your Lord is the Most
Generous.'“(96):1-3.

Then Allah's Apostle (pbuh) returned with the Inspiration and with his heart beating severely. He went to his wife, Khadijah and
said, “Cover me!” she covered him until his fear was over. After that he told
her everything that had happened and said, “I fear that something may happen to
me.” Khadijah replied, “Never! By Allah, Allah will never disgrace you. You
keep good relations withyour kith and kin, help the poor and the destitute, serve your
guests generously and assist the deserving people afflicted with calamities.”

Khadijah then accompanied him to her cousin Waraqah Ibn Nawfal, who, during the
pre-Islamic period became a Christian. Khadijah said to Waraqah, “Listen to the
story of your nephew, O my cousin!”

Waraqah asked, “O my nephew! What have you seen?” Allah's Apostle described
that which he had seen. Waraqah said, “This is the one who keeps the secrets
(angel Gabriel) whom Allah had sent to Moses. I wish
I were young and could live until the time when your people will turn you out.”
Allah's Apostle asked, “Will they drive me out?” Waraqah replied in the
affirmative. After a few days Waraqah died and the Divine Inspiration also
paused for a while.”

This mote thinks that God, through His deputy, intervened
in a major way in human history that day, and also in the case of Moses,
because his account of the first encounter is similar to that of prophet Muhammadpbuh; confusion,
fear and chills.

God might have intervened at critical junctures in the
case of origin of life on planet earth. Early snowfall in the winter of 1941,
did contribute to German defeat in Second World War. Imagine the world history
for the next thousand years if Nazi Germany had won. Many biologists think that
life could not have erupted on earth without a Designer, and DNA molecule is too
complex to have originated just at random, as if the first watch was made by a
blind watchmaker.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

146.System of the World. Part four

We were discussing that you have to invite God in your life.

How do you invite
God in your life? By praying to Him. You have to beg God again and again. He
may or may not grant your prayer. But if you are earnest in your desire to
reach God (and God will look in your heart), this mote is certain, as certain
can be, that He will grant you your prayer. He will transform you. Some people
are lucky (because they are ready) and get transformed quickly; otherwise, most
often it is a gradual process and may take decades (two or three decades in the
case of this mote)

God enters your
life, often, in an unobtrusive way. Law of cause and effect is not
violated, although there are exceptions. For instance, in the case of Shahab, a
letter came from Germany, which was a supernatural event, because the spirit of
Fatima (daughter of holy prophet) could not have known the prayer of Shahab (blog
65). There are other examples.

The principal that is never violated is that the sanctity of the overall experiment is
preserved. The rules of the game are not changed. One is not allowed to
interfere in God’s system. Let me give you some examples to illustrate this
important point.

Giri
Bala did not eat or drink for fifty six years (blogs 79- 80). Therese Neumann
did not eat and drink for twelve years (except for a wafer each day). When Sri
Yogananda asked Giri Bala that why didn’t she let the public know her secret of
living on air, it would eliminate hunger in the world, she was shocked. Her
answer was most revealing. She said it would be against God’s plan.

A seer
learnt the seven winning lottery numbers, one day in advance of drawing, by a
spiritual technique (blog 135). He was strongly warned by higher powers, never
to do it again. God’s laws, such as hiding the future, are for important
reasons. To look into future, without God’s permission, is against God’s plans

Jesus
Christ performed miracles left and right. Why didn’t he (or other powerful
mystics like Sri Yukteshwar, Data Sahib) disclose the secrets of making
electricity, or a fusion nuclear reactor, or disclose the existence of American
Continent, etc. Because, that would have interfered with God’s plans. It would
violate the sanctity of the experiment.

I used
to wonder in the past (I don’t anymore) that why don’t Data Sahib, the highest
saint of Pakistan, help the inhabitants of Lahore in a major way (Blog 62-63).
He helps in the form of daily free food for hundreds. Perhaps few dozen are
helped, monetarily, each day. In a city of 6-7 million, and in a country of 190
million, these efforts seem to be very insufficient. I used to wonder, why
doesn’t he eradicate the basic problem of poverty, and thus help millions.
Perhaps he could do that. He could provide the secret of cheap solar energy, or
to produce rain on demand, or reveal a cheap way to convert sea water into
fresh water. I don’t wonder anymore, because he is not allowed to do so. It would
interfere with the basic premise of the experiment, that human beings should
progress ( or regress, as in the case of 16 centuries of stagnation in human
thought from Greek period to Renaissance ) on their own.

Before we proceed any further we must address what is meant
by supernatural. Miracles are supernatural events, because they apparently do
not obey the existing laws of nature.
They may yet obey some other undiscovered
laws of nature.

It is clear that there are souls.
I have provided ample evidence (107-110). Now how do we explain souls
scientifically? We simply cannot. A dead body is no different from an inanimate
object like a lump of coal or a cup. Brain disintegrates after death. I suppose
if we were to ask this question to Mr Einstein who reportedly did not believe
in God, after showing him a soul and convincing him that there is life after
death in the form of souls, he might have answered in the following way. “There
must be physical laws governing the
existence of soul forms, just as there are laws which govern the visible
universe. It is just that we have not yet discovered those laws. After those
laws are discovered the explanation will be very simple. Think, how our ability
to predict solar eclipse to a second, might appear to a man living thousands of
years before Christ. Or what would he think of a man walking on the street
talking in a few inches long cellular telephone to another person who may be
thousands of miles away, and only the recipient, out of 7 billion inhabitants
of earth, can hear him. Think of a bird pecking at his own reflection in a
mirror, a reflection that looks and moves like real.Soul may be like a reflection in a mirror,
both real and unreal, but obeying the laws of nature.”

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

145.System of the World. Part Three

Materialism with God Theory. This hypothesis is an attempt to compromise
the two basic observations that ordinary human beings make. First, everything
is made by somebody; thus, this highly complex universe could not have come into
existence just spontaneously. Therefore, there has to be a Creator who created
it. Secondly, one thing leads to another, every action leads to its
consequences. Every human being has observed that such and such thing happened
or happens due to such and such thing. For ordinary human beings God never
comes and plays any role in their daily lives or anybody else’s daily life

This theory is an amalgam of hypothesis no 1
and 2. It accepts a Creator, and therefore answers the first criticism to the
“materialistic theory”, namely, that nothing can be created out of nothing. The
theory also explains the second
criticism to the materialistic theory; i.e. the phenomena of miracles, answering of
prayers, foretelling of the future, and the existence of the spirits of dead
persons who once inhabited earth. God or His deputies are responsible for these
occurrences.

It also answers the criticism to the
religious theory (see details in blog 136), namely, why is there so much
suffering and injustice; the answer is, because they have nothing to do with God. God ordinarily does not interfere in the
running of the world; therefore, whatever is going on in the world is happening
due to the law of cause of effect, just as it would happen if there were no
God.If people are poor, there are
economic reasons for it. If they suffer due to old age or disease, that is due
to the limitation of their body. If they are preyed upon by cruel or powerful
people, it happens because they are weak, or their government is not redressing
this problem, and so on. Even animal suffering is due to their weakness or old
age. Remember, God does not have to be good according to this hypothesis; at
best, He is indifferent and does not care.

God has to be hidden, because He wants human
beings to develop on their own, be their own masters, and learn from their own
mistakes. It complies with our daily experience of events happening due
to our free will interacting with environment.

Human effort
is not useless. As a matter of fact, it is the engine that propels us forward.
The whole of human history is due to human effort.

If we were to
take this theory in its pure form, then God created this universe 13.8 billion
years ago, and since then it is running on its own.

But things are
not so simple. We still have to answer three questions:

1. Does God
ever interfere in the running of this world?

2.What is the purpose of the universe?

3. Is God
personal or impersonal?

Let us try to
answer these questions:

1. Does God
ever intervene in human affairs? This is a difficult question to answer, because logic will say No, while evidence
points towards Yes. I don’t have the answer.

If you try to place yourself in the position
of God, you will imagine Him as some form of tremendous energy with a mind. A
mind that is supermind. That Mind sets up an experiment with a set of basic
unchangeable rules, like the speed of light (nothing can exceed that limit );
charge of an electron; magnitude of strong nuclear force ( which holds the
atoms together ); principle of conservation of energy ( energy can be neither
produced or destroyed ); attraction of atoms to each other resulting in the
formation of chemicals and thus formation of life, including us; force of
gravity to be the weakest of the four forces of nature and yet the only one
which acts at long distances, 4-7 billion km in the case of Pluto. It is this force which makes the earth revolve around the sun. Dark energy
pushing the galaxies apart; nuclearfusion atomic reaction that fuels all stars ( including our sun, which then provides solar energy to the earth ). liquid water, a source of energy from a nearby star, and oxygen,
are the requirements of life anywhere in the universe, etc.

The purpose of the experiment may be to see
the emergence of intelligent, self-aware (animals are not self-aware), sentient
(capable of feeling) life forms, and follow their progress over billions of
years. After the experiment is over, make necessary changes and start a new
experiment. Logically there should be no outside interference because it would
pollute the results.

But, this mote thinks that the evidence is to
the contrary. God (or His deputies) interferes in two ways:

(a). Minor way, when a person invites God in
his/her life

(b) Major way, when He interferes in human
development and history

(a) Minor
intervention. Everything in our lives happens by the interaction of our
free will with the environments through the law of cause and effect. God is not
concerned. He does not interfere, whether we are virtuous or evil, whether we
perform good deeds or bad deeds.To ask God to interfere in your life, you
have to invite God in your life. This is a cardinal principle.